Together with You
by cubedstrawberry
Summary: May stopped being a coordinator five years ago. She became hesitant to return to the world of contests when her reason to quit disappeared. She was not sure if she was ready to face all the people she lost contact with over the years. Not that she had the time to think about it. Contestshipping, multi-chapter.


**Author's Note:** Oh man, I don't really know why I started writing this. I guess I was just overwhelmed with too much feels when I started re-watching the AG series.

This will be a long and bumpy ride.

Also, I've only watched the original Japanese version of the anime. If some of the terms I used looked weird, it's probably because if that. Please tell me if that happens.

The Drew in this story is solely based on the one from the episode "The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing!" only, because I feel like this is the episode where Drew and May's relationship really begins. If Drew seems too nice or too OOC, I'm sorry.

 **Disclaimer: Pokémon does not belong to me.**

Warnings: Rated T mostly because of Harley in future chapters.

* * *

Former pokémon coordinator May retired 5 years ago.

Just after winning the Grand Festival in Johto and becoming a Top Coordinator, May received some very sudden news that her father, Norman, had passed away in an accident while protecting the denizens of the town from a natural disaster. Since then, May was a gym leader substitute that the pokémon league approved of and hired until Max completed his training as a future gym leader.

Finally, after a 5-year wait, Max finally returned as a full-fledged gym leader.

May's job was over. Or so she thought.

"Come on, May. You can do it!" Max patted his sister on the back.

"I don't know, Max. I haven't done this in five years."

The siblings stood in front of the Petalburg contest hall. Max kept nudging May forward, but May was still hesitating.

"I don't want to see them again, Max. Not yet."

"Oh come on, the world is huge. They're probably out there traveling in a different region as we speak."

May knew Max was right. Contests were being held in many different regions, and there was only a very miniscule chance that her rivals would be here, in Hoenn. Max looked like he was very confident of her success, and she did not want to let her brother down, after all of his training to become a gym leader in the past five years.

May took a deep breath.

"Okay. I'll go."

* * *

The last-minute registration took no time at all, and by the time May arrived at the back stage area, her hands were shaking and sweating. She decided to sit down in a spot with relatively fewer people. She felt like a newbie all over again, as if she never attended a contest ever before in her life. But then again, the atmosphere in the back stage area had always been tense and quiet.

At least, it _would_ have been quiet, until a series of fan girl screams caught May's attention, and then May added her own screams inside her head.

 _Holy Arceus. Do not make eye contact._ May cried on the inside. _Of course Drew has to be here. Of course he has to be._

May texted Max:  
 _Can I bail?_

The reply came quickly:  
 _No._

May shut her Pokénav off. May's heartbeat was racing; she did not want to see Drew here, nor Harley, nor Solidad, nor any other people that she knew from the past. She had changed too much from being the cheerful, happy-go-lucky coordinator to a cautious, more serious pokémon trainer in just a matter of five year. Not only that, she actually did not keep in contact with a lot of these people because of her stress.

May briefly wondered if she would be hated for this. The thought terrified her. Her breathing became harsh.

 _It's okay._ May thought as a consolation to herself. _I've changed in appearance too. He probably won't recognize me. And considering how famous he is now, he probably won't even remember me._

May leaned back, her head against the cold metal lockers. She tried to take steady breaths, but she was still shaking too much and her thoughts just would not calm down. She lifted her arm to cover her eyes.

She wanted to leave so much. But she did not want to disappoint Max.

A hand patted her on the head.

"Breathe."

And May let out a breath she did not realize she was holding.

 _I must have been so embarrassing. I can't believe I didn't notice anyone coming this close to me._ May thought while putting down her arm. She could feel herself relaxing.

Then she froze up again as soon as she saw the person in front of her.

"D-Drew?"

He smiled at her. "Hi, May."

A pause.

"Are you competing too?"

"Fortunately for you, I am not. I am here as a special guest. A fourth judge," Drew said as he flipped his hair.

For a second, May was overwhelmed by a sudden sense of nostalgia. She could not react to his words. She pondered how long it must had been since she last talked to Drew.

He had grown very tall, and his voice sounded very different now — a lot deeper and without the roughness from the past. May thought she would have recognized the voice when she heard it, since May had watched Drew's interviews many times on the television. His voice sounded very different when listening directly.

"Shouldn't I feel unfortunate then? Since you must be a horrible judge," May said after yet another moment of awkward silence.

Drew did not seem to mind her temporary slowness, however. "In case you haven't been keeping up with the news, I have actually already done this multiple times, thank you very much. If anything, you should be worrying about yourself," he flicked May's forehead, "Not too much though; your pea-sized brain can't handle it."

"Oh don't get me started on this, Mister Grass Head."

"I was only telling the truth, Miss Airhead."

Their argument started. May was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to slip back into a friendly conversation with her rival. Five minutes into the argument, May could feel her body muscles loosen up.

"You feel a bit better now, don't you?" Drew said.

"Yeah," May admitted, "I was feeling a little horrible about myself. I kept thinking about how I lost contact with my friends and my past life, and eventually I thought I don't have any friends anymore. It was terrifying."

She turned to face Drew. "I'm sorry for not keeping in contact."

"Apology accepted. But, to be honest, I kind of appreciated the quiet time without you around." Drew flipped his hair again, and he received a light punch towards his arm from May.

"How did you recognize me that quickly anyway? Don't I look different from five years ago? And weren't you surrounded by a bunch of fan girls just now?" May asked with genuine curiosity.

For some reason, Drew looked away from her. "You're not that different. And you've always been easy to find."

"Huh?"

May was about to ask Drew to further explain himself, but suddenly Nurse Joy charged into the room, dragging Drew away. Drew actually had the nerve to look amused (and a little embarrassed, just a little) when Nurse Joy yelled at him angrily for being late for the preparations on stage and how he should not mingle with contestants right before the contest started. May heard Drew apologizing half-heartedly, and she giggled.

She had missed him dearly, she realized.

"Excuse me," said a voice beside May. May turned her head and saw a girl, mostly likely one or two years younger than she was. May guessed that this girl was probably a coordinator and one of Drew's many fan girls. "Are you in a relationship with Drew?"

May took a while to process the question. "What was that?"

"Are you his girlfriend?"

May laughed. It had been a while since people mistook her for Drew's girlfriend as well; this used to happen in Johto a lot, she recalled.

"No, I'm not. I'm just his... former rival, I guess."

The girl looked confused. "Former?"

"Yeah, I haven't been here for too long. I thought he would have forgotten me."

The young coordinator stared at May, and her eyes suddenly widened. "Is your name May? The Petalburg gym leader?"

May looked at the girl, startled. "You must be very knowledgeable. I didn't think coordinators would pay much attention to gym leaders." May rested her chin on the palm of her hand, "I am the former Petalburg gym leader. Retired just a few days ago. My brother took over the gym."

The girl did not reply to May's statements for a while, and May herself did not care to elaborate any further. "You know, after you quit pokémon contests, you were all Drew would talk about during interviews," the young coordinator said with a voice filled with discontent.

There was no time for May to think about what was just said, as a cheerful voice blared in the locker room through the speakers, officially announcing the starting of the contest. All the coordinators began to get their final preparations ready, and the girl that was talking to May hurriedly left.

May took out a pokéball and held it firmly in her hand. "It's been a long time, Beautifly," May mumbled at the pokéball.

Petalburg gym was a normal-type gym. May would occasionally use other types of pokémon instead of only normal-types to test trainers that challenge this gym. However, although Beautifly was a talented performer during contests, it greatly struggled during many gym battles, so Beautifly had been left out, unlike most of her other pokémon.

May shook her head to clear her thoughts. It was time to stop being a gym leader and go back to being a coordinator.

* * *

"And now, it's time for the performance you've all been waiting for!" The announcer yelled into the microphone excitedly, and the crowd went wild. "After five long years of waiting, one of our Top Coordinators are finally back! Let us welcome the Princess of Hoenn, number 24, May from Petalburg City!"

May stepped onto the familiar stage. She was feeling nervous again.

"As it turns out, our special judge today and May were rivals five years ago." The host — Vivian — happily skipped towards the judging table. "Mr. Drew, how do you feel about May's return?"

"Based on her past performance, I have nothing but confidence in her success." Drew said with a flip of his hair and his signature smirk. The "now, I'm not so sure" part went unspoken. Both the announcer and the audience took Drew's statement as a compliment, but May knew better than that. May rolled her eyes, and made sure that Drew saw it.

Somehow, hearing Drew's voice calmed her nervousness a little bit. She was still nervous, but she also felt very excited at the same time.

May took out her pokéball.

"Beautifly, take the stage! Use silver wind!"

As soon as Beautifly emerged, a gust of sparkly wind swirled around the butterfly pokémon.

"Quiver dance! Spread the wind around!"

Beautifly began dancing in the air, gracefully moving the silver sparkles around with its wings. The glitter began to move through the air towards the audience, and the audience was awed.

"Let's end this. Move towards the center of the stage and give a maxed out morning sun!"

Light shone from Beautifly, and it illuminated the stage. Light rays began to reflect off of the glitter, making them shimmer in the air, as if the place was snowing with light.

"How brilliantly done!" Vivian said, and the crowd cheered. "The entire stage was filled with pieces of soft light! And Beautifly, in the center of it all, like a princess sharing the pieces of her morning with the audience!" Vivian dramatically turned to face the judges. "Now let's see what the judges think!"

Beautifly landed on May's head while the regular three judges shared their thoughts. All three gave May a 10, and May would have gotten a full score if only Drew had not given her a 9.

"It was good, but I've seen some of your better performances," Drew remarked. May resisted the urge to stick her tongue out.

Beautifly chirped on May's head happily. May took the butterfly pokémon off of the head and gave it a hug. It happily return the hug.

"And now! For the final round! As you all know, only the top four contestants from the first round can participate in this round. Let's see who can qualify!"

May did not even need to pay attention to the announcement to know that she qualified for the finals, but seeing her picture on the large television screen still made her excited every time. She knew she was ready for the next round.

By the time May stepped onto the stage again for the battle round, she felt something that she had never felt before. Unlike the performance round, which used to come quite naturally to her, this time, the battle round felt a lot more relaxed. Even when she was using Beautifly, a pokémon that she was no longer very used to battling with, the matches just seemed to flow very smoothly. May could now see the weaknesses of the foe's pokémon quickly with precision. Her opponents gave solid fights, but they were no match for an ex-gym leader, having their pokémon knocked out in a few moments.

May won with a breeze.

* * *

After many congratulations, Drew met up with May outside of the contest hall. May was surprised to see what Drew was holding.

A rose.

"For Beautifly?"

"Something like that."

Both of them shared a small laugh.

"Try not to knock your opponents out too quickly next time. It's not very contest-like if you keep knocking them out before they could show off their moves."

"Hey, it's not like it was on purpose," May replied with a huff, "I'm still not getting the hang of contest battling like I used to, okay? Cut me a little slack." May paused when she saw Drew staring at her. "What are you looking at?"

Drew took a while to form his words. "You grew taller."

"Pfft. Of course I did. It's been five years," she replied with a small scoff.

Drew twitched a little bit. "For a girl, you are monstrously tall."

"...You do know that you are even taller than I am, right?"

Drew flipped his hair. "The average height of boys is higher than that of girls."

"Oh come on," May rolled her eyes, "How about this? I doubt you can even find another girl that's only a few centimeters different from your own height. You can only look for girls around this height for the perfect match."

"What perfect match?"

"You know, it's the perfect couple's height! For kissing."

Drew's eyes narrowed.

May did not notice and continued, "You're unlucky for being so monstrously tall. Thanks to my existence, though, it means that it is possible for somebody out there to match your height."

If May took the time to look at Drew, she might be able to notice Drew's strange, pensive facial expression then.

"Are you sure that I am unlucky? I should be feeling pretty fortunate if most girls can't just reach me whenever they want."

May giggled, "Well, sure. Whatever makes you-"

She did not notice Drew getting close to her until it was too late. Her sentence was cut off and never finished.

Lips met.

And cameras flashed.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** YEP. I have no idea what happened here. NO IDEA AT ALL.

(Drew has a crush on May. May has forgotten most of her past feelings at this point.)

By the way, this is probably this only chapter where I'll write about the details within a contest. May either wins a contest or loses one after this, since what happens during a contest is not really relevant to the plot.

If you like this, please leave a favorite and/or a review. It really motivates me to write more.


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